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  1. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Don't neglect to play the sequel Changing Tides! I believe you would enjoy it too.

    Far: Lone Sails

    Don't neglect to play the sequel Changing Tides! I believe you would enjoy it too.

  2. Comment on I'm glad Hideo Kojima went into games instead of directing movies in ~games

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    It's the problem most commercially successful auteurs have, regardless of medium - No one wants to be the one to tell them "no". As long as the money's coming in...

    you probably already have and ignore them

    It's the problem most commercially successful auteurs have, regardless of medium - No one wants to be the one to tell them "no". As long as the money's coming in...

    12 votes

  3. Comment on Our commitment to Windows quality in ~tech

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    I have friends in the Arch cult and they want me to join them when I enact my planned migration to Linux on the desktop this spring (I've been using Linux in other devices for decades, mostly but...

    I have friends in the Arch cult and they want me to join them when I enact my planned migration to Linux on the desktop this spring (I've been using Linux in other devices for decades, mostly but not always via terminals). What are some good reasons why I should not choose Arch Linux as a distro?

    Here are some of the weird things I usually run:

    • Obscure games
    • Coding and decompiling tools
    • Android platform tools
    • Karaoke creation pipeline tools
    • Organizer tools for writers
    • Native audio routing/Voicemeeter
    • VR (my friends do too so I don't expect this to be more of a problem than it is for them)
    • Ancient and/or obscure image manipulation software
    • Unity
    • OBS
    • Ultimate Vocal Remover
    • Google Earth, the software
    • Various visual database and REST API clients
    • Deluge (torrent client)
    • Ancient panorama creation software
    • Various Electron/ish applications
    • zkanji
    • foobar2k

    (I've deliberately excluded various things that are FOSS and that I know for sure will run just fine on any linux distro.)

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Thanks for the in-depth explanation! Fun fact is that I've played Origin a long time ago (the only one I played) but due to my lack of visual memory I have zero recollection of it. Without...

    Thanks for the in-depth explanation! Fun fact is that I've played Origin a long time ago (the only one I played) but due to my lack of visual memory I have zero recollection of it. Without watching those trailers, I can vaguely remember that there was a circular boss fight and a girl with a hammer maybe? Plus the other protagonist. I played the girl.

  5. Comment on Let's talk about tropes! in ~books

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    If you don't know of it yet, you might enjoy the Humor Me webcomic, about a girl living as a boy. It's not perfect and slow as molasses but it's very charming.

    If you don't know of it yet, you might enjoy the Humor Me webcomic, about a girl living as a boy. It's not perfect and slow as molasses but it's very charming.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Let's talk about tropes! in ~books

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    I'm basic enough that I typically enjoy stories in which people change/evolve/try new things. So... That's the most egregious, I think. Encompasses coming of age, hero's journeys, travel stories...

    Do you have any tropes in books that you love?

    I'm basic enough that I typically enjoy stories in which people change/evolve/try new things. So... That's the most egregious, I think. Encompasses coming of age, hero's journeys, travel stories with a rotating cast of characters, etc.

    Also, benevolent aliens/hive mind/AI/etc.

    Funny, lovable sidekicks (long term).

    Revolutionary technology completely changes the world, and the world building is so good that the story shows this in like fifty different ways.

    PLOT TWIST! The more twisty, the better. Recontextualize the whole plot for me and blow my mind!

    Violence isn't the answer... Except when it is. Extreme, cartoonishly over the top, cathartic violence.

    On the flip side, do you have any tropes that you can't stand?

    The villain can do whatever the plot requires and no one notices/cares/knows/conceives of stopping them. Meanwhile, the protagonist has zero agency and is just being swept along. I call this overcorrection. My theory is that this happens when authors either independently decide they are treating their protagonists too well and lose confidence in their own story, or worse, when they spend too much time on Twitter. (It happens much more often in second or third books than in first books.) I was reading that person's story, and now they might as well have been frozen inside an iceberg and nothing would change. Urgh.

    Children are tormented, killed or otherwise abused in an attempt to emotionally manipulate the reader.

    Author watched too many Fox TV shows and decided that the last fifty pages of their book needed to fabricate an entirely new conflict from scratch in order to leave a cliffhanger to encourage the reader to buy the next book. Typically this is rushed and immersion-breaking (this is an immediate series drop from me.)

    Do you find yourself enjoying tropes being subverted?

    Yes.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on Jet Lag Season 17: Taiwan Rail Rush | Trailer in ~hobbies

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    Spoiler-free episode 1 comments: Great format so far; Good guest; Wow, Taiwan looks great to visit.

    Spoiler-free episode 1 comments:

    • Great format so far;
    • Good guest;
    • Wow, Taiwan looks great to visit.
    3 votes

  8. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    It's a made up language. I'm just starting the recently released sequel, having played the original back then. It's more of the same so far, a pretty puzzle platformer in a planet's technological...

    It's a made up language. I'm just starting the recently released sequel, having played the original back then. It's more of the same so far, a pretty puzzle platformer in a planet's technological ruins, but from the review play times I get the feeling it's going to be longer. So if you want more Lana...

    2 votes

  9. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    I've played Angeline Era, by the same creators of the Anodyne games, all the way to the final boss. I'm certain I didn't 100% it, but... 90%? Maybe? it took 25 hours. Let's first talk about the...

    I've played Angeline Era, by the same creators of the Anodyne games, all the way to the final boss. I'm certain I didn't 100% it, but... 90%? Maybe? it took 25 hours.

    Let's first talk about the gameplay. Angeline Era is... RPG-adjacent? There are two core mechanics, combat and exploration. You can hold an "examine" button to explore any spot in the game, and this might uncover (hitherto invisible) items, traps and teleportation points. There is also an "overworld," and you need to use this mechanic to find level access points in it. The idea is that visual cues should be used to determine what spots to examine - nooks, dead ends, symmetry, texture changes, etc.

    There are many levels, and while there are trace amounts of side-view platforming, the second big mechanic is combat. Most levels are 3/4 perspective gauntlets of areas with various monsters that can be attacked by just bumping into them - the protagonist will slash with his sword automatically - firing a very limited gun at them, or using "artifacts" with special effects. Unlike in early Zelda, you can jump. A friend told me some of this reminds him of the Ys games, and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about.

    The aesthetic seems to be very deliberately like that of a PSX RPG, at least outwardly. Typically expect low poly 3D, simple textures, vertex colors and no postprocessing. All the levels are designed (not procedurally generated). There are boss fights, always in real time. But unlike what you'd see in RPGs of the time, there is no party of friendly heroes, no status effects, little in the way of an inventory and the menu is as unhelpful as they could get away with. All the mechanics seem a little different from the norm - for example, there is healing food, but you can only eat in advance of a level. Food goes bad if you don't eat it and will then damage you if eaten while spoiled. You can sleep, but that doesn't heal you - instead, you have to level up... in your dreams. You can't level up while awake.

    One might think the game repetitive, but it's surprisingly compelling. The base gameplay doesn't require a lot of mental bandwidth and it can be fun to whack all of them monsters. It's also addictive to find all the levels in the overworld and clear them, given that this is a very non-linear process. The goofy low poly aesthetic isn't particularly pleasing to the eye, but at least it's easy to parse.

    That brings us to the story.

    Angeline Era is weird, man. At times, while playing, I thought I had a handle on it - that I now basically understood the framing. I was wrong every time. It's weird, and it gets weirder. I will avoid late game spoilers in the assumption that you will want to play the game yourself.

    The protagonist, a glass cannon who wears far too little in the way of armor, is called to the land of Era by a furry angel who gives him a divine mission to Collect the Nine Bicones. The gravitas of the premise kind of falls apart almost immediately when it turns out Era is positively infested with angels. They're just chill dudes hanging around checking humans out. Why, you can even visit the crash site of their spaceship, Throne. Didn't think this was science fiction, did you? Well, it still isn't. (Or is it?) Era is also full of fairies; most of the monsters you fight apparently qualify as fairies - that being the fae, the fair folk. But there are also plenty of fairies just chilling around, chatting with you or even selling you stuff, which does bring into question the morality of your wholesale slaughter of their species.

    And that's the thing, such matters will cross your mind, because Angeline Era does have a depth to it. The protagonist is christian, or thinks he is. This game will quote scripture at you and you can press a button to meditate whenever you see the shape of a christian cross (this does nothing). But fairies and locations, on the other hand, will reference actual pagan/celtic mythology. Throughout the levels, or in secret areas, there are encounters and texts that contain more clever references and thought-provoking prompts. The feeling I got was that the writer is a smart and interesting person, but also that she's taking the piss at least half of the time.

    As you approach the final portion of the game in a crescendo of weirdness (you can't imagine how hard I'm trying to not spoil anything), there are a number of plot twists and a regrettably linear section I didn't particularly enjoy. With how difficult most things about this game are to pin down, I'm not quite sure how to produce a final conclusion about it. All I can say is that, at the end of the day, I did play through the whole thing (at a consistent pace) and that Steam reviews are overwhelmingly positive. It's probably a good game!

    Previous

    8 votes

  10. Comment on Are you a morning person or a night owl? in ~talk

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    There are things I do better in the morning and things I do better at night. For example, I do some types of work better in the morning; writing as well is best done on a morning schedule. For a...

    There are things I do better in the morning and things I do better at night. For example, I do some types of work better in the morning; writing as well is best done on a morning schedule. For a time I used to wake up before 6 to rush into my big commute, barely beat the traffic and be in the office around 7, did most of my work in the morning, barely anything got done after lunch. But I can also program great in the afternoon, as well as all sorts of other things.

    So the important thing is when do I sleep better?

    Definitely in the morning. So I'm a night owl I guess!

    Fun fact: I exercise in the evening.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Norwegian influencer buys failed property development in Spain to build ‘self-sufficient’ eco-community – Modern Eco Village plans to erect 500 homes, schools and shops in ~design

  12. Comment on The future of AI in ~tech

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    I share your frustration and I laughed when I read your reply, but in a way it's heartbreaking, too. A lot of people are like this (or more like this than they ever would have been otherwise)...

    I share your frustration and I laughed when I read your reply, but in a way it's heartbreaking, too. A lot of people are like this (or more like this than they ever would have been otherwise) because they are victims of a concerted attack against their very selves, to serve the interests of one or a thousand hostile actors, it doesn't matter. You're right that it's crucial for people to want to change, but in a way they were also changed from the outside.

    AI generated videos are already much more insidious and difficult to spot than some goofy racist tiktok propaganda. I fear they're going to slot seamlessly into people's bias confirmation feedback cycles and stay there forever.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on The future of AI in ~tech

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    A few months ago someone I know received from the boomer racist grapevine (don't ask me to define what this is beyond people just forwarding things to other people that speak to their biases I...

    Knowing something is fake does not neutralise its effect on your judgement.

    A few months ago someone I know received from the boomer racist grapevine (don't ask me to define what this is beyond people just forwarding things to other people that speak to their biases I guess) a video purporting to depict Indians preparing Danish butter cookies (those in the blue round tin boxes) in extremely unsanitary conditions. They proclaimed that they would never again eat another Danish butter cookie.

    The video was full of problematic stuff and obvious fake propaganda, so after about one minute of research, I explained to the person it was fake, that such fakes have been doing the rounds for a while now (you can find them online if you're interested) and here's a real video from a Danish butter cookie factory. It was just a few minutes long.

    They watched about five seconds of the video starting from second 20 or so. Then they moved the timeline a couple minutes in and watched another ten seconds. Then they closed the video and said "yeah, I'm still never going to eat those cookies again."

    What is anyone supposed to do about that level of dissociation from reality?

    15 votes

  14. Comment on A "Real BMO" local AI Agent with a Raspberry Pi and Ollama in ~tech

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    The result sounds really great!

    The result sounds really great!

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Leon S. Kennedy is a car salesman now in ~games

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    Because there have been RE releases in recent times, people have been talking about the games, and that resulted in my becoming aware of the baffling (to me) fact that people find Leon a...

    Because there have been RE releases in recent times, people have been talking about the games, and that resulted in my becoming aware of the baffling (to me) fact that people find Leon a compelling character. I think the last three games were pretty good, well made games for the genre, but I've never liked Leon in any kind of way (or the other protagonists for that matter). I could probably like Jill if they developed her more I guess?

    Am I just wrong? Or maybe is this a novel vs videogame writing quality gap thing? What makes Leon good enough to sell people things?

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What is the One Piece? Eiichiro Oda has put an answer to paper and hidden it 651m under the ocean. in ~anime

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    I haven't paid any attention to One Piece in many years, but is this going to be like Harry Potter, where "the last chapter has been written since the beginning" and it ended up feeling crappy and...

    I haven't paid any attention to One Piece in many years, but is this going to be like Harry Potter, where "the last chapter has been written since the beginning" and it ended up feeling crappy and dated?

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Color game — how well can you remember colors? | Dialed in ~games

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    Hm, I guess I've always had all sorts of hobbies that require fiddling with colors for a non-negligible amount of time. Such as game development, 3D modeling (textures and sprites basically) and,...

    Hm, I guess I've always had all sorts of hobbies that require fiddling with colors for a non-negligible amount of time. Such as game development, 3D modeling (textures and sprites basically) and, surprisingly, my karaoke video channel, since I fell into the habit of creating a distinct aesthetic for each video. I'm a multimedia systems major.

    Another thing that comes to mind is that due to my aphantasia I'm pretty bad at recognizing the shapes of things, so in situations where visual recognition is required, I've had the most success by recognizing color moods. A measurable example is guessthe.game , which I've been playing regularly with friends for a couple years now.

    And of course I'm writing all this but this could also just be an outlier/luck. I'm afraid to play a bunch more times to increase the sample size now and find out I actually suck :D

    1 vote

  18. Comment on British Columbia announces it is making daylight time permanent after years of promises in ~society

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    I've always been a fan of the idea of permanent standard time. If people prefer getting home earlier in the solar day they should just negotiate that work schedule with their employer, rather than...

    I've always been a fan of the idea of permanent standard time. If people prefer getting home earlier in the solar day they should just negotiate that work schedule with their employer, rather than forcing everybody else to be offset from the solar day.

    (I have an extremely late schedule, in part due to working with americans, so this is actually to my own disadvantage.)

    4 votes

  19. Comment on Color game — how well can you remember colors? | Dialed in ~games

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    Frontend developer! Mwahaha! I wonder how much everyone's screen is affecting the results. Who's using OLED (such as on a smartphone?) I used an IPS panel; I wonder if that reduces the perceptual...

    Frontend developer! Mwahaha!

    I wonder how much everyone's screen is affecting the results. Who's using OLED (such as on a smartphone?) I used an IPS panel; I wonder if that reduces the perceptual color space, making it easier somehow.

    Also, another thing I noticed was that the colors that seemed the most different in the final results display (ie that I perceived as doing worst in) did not seem to match the ones with the lowest score, even though the differences in score were relatively minor. I wonder how the score is calculated. Is it just linear distance?

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Color game — how well can you remember colors? | Dialed in ~games